Vison of Life...It speaks about my views towards what's happening around us, though many of the things represents Pune, a becoming Metro in Maharashtra,India yet most of us live in similar city life. In city day to day life all we face is problems around us; from traffic to water to slums to power supply & many more, but who has solutions? That's why the name
Vison of Life!
Sanjay Deshpande

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Kanha, Battle of the Grens !

Every time I have some moment on a sea shore, or in the mountains, or sometimes in a quiet forest, I think this is why the environment has to be preserved… Bill Bradely.

Friends,

Just back from a four days trip from Kanha & each time when I visit the forest it’s a refreshment which only the one who has experienced can only understand or share. And it’s a thing which one has to feel by him & for that we need to be open with our own self to accept that feel whole heartedly. A times looking at the way our needs or rather greed are encroaching the forests makes me fear about how many more years or days I can enjoy this feel or surrounding may be the visit is only for 3/4 days! And then the

next question follows, what I am doing for preserving this

wonderful treasure which god has given us? Yes it’s this question which makes me upset & I think that’s the start of every change to our own

self. Jungles, keep apart the hypothetical aspect, has given many of us

immense moment of joy, may it be watching a tigress moving for kill or

an eagle taking a flight or a blue jay flying over grass flaunting its

exorbitantly shining blue range or even a large spider making its web &

awaiting prey! Watching all these & keeping guessing about what new

scene the next road turn is going to get unfolded in front of my

eyes, its more suspense than a Hitchcock thriller ride in jungle!

In so many ways forest teaches us if we keep our eyes, brain & most important the interest open to what it’s showing to us. For example I saw a tiger going right across the full heard of Barsinghas (its tiger’s favorite prey) & yet neglecting them like they don’t exist & heading to water hole as he was thirsty & not hungry. And then in other instance a tigress moved ahead for a kill towards a heard of spotted dears focusing intently on the prey & neglecting nearly 15 odd gypsy’s & aprrox 100 tourists watching her, that all commotion didn’t hurt her focus from the target! What we learn from all such incidences in forest depends up on why we are visiting the forests.

So much to learn as in forest nothing happens without a specified purpose & all the elements even the trees stick to the purpose. This is what the major difference is between human beings & other species. We are always looking for something more than what we have & neglecting what we deserve & what’s our real need is!

This all not only needed to be preserved but has to make it grow more.

Recently in Green Earth Summit 2011 our Hon. Environment & Forest

Minister openly & frankly admitted that it’s impossible to take the

percentage of forest cover to the ideal mark of 33%, all thanks to the

continuous growing population of our country which will be reaching to

120 crores this census! It’s not just our need but the greed which is

the biggest threat to the forests & unless we don’t curtail it or find

the means for doing so it’s the Jungles which will be going to loose

the battle with the men! Urbanization is an issue & it’s making

constant encroachment on the easiest prey that is the Jungle. We can’t

blame the people doing so as it’s easy to comment or speak patriotically

by sitting in our AC cabins in Metros. Ask those all millions who don’t

have a roof of their own on there head & they will see give away your

trees, give first shelter to us! We need to find answers for our

growing population & their long term future there only lies the future

of the forests.

When ever we say "Save Forests or Save Tiger”, it’s not what we are

saying, it’s what we are doing for what we are saying is what matters

most. It’s not a single specie or an area we are looking at, its the

entire system which needs to be modified. Like I always laugh when I

hear the appeal by many even the leaders " Corruption hatao"! To whom

we are kidding! Corruption is within us & that’s why we are unable to

remove it from others. Here I may sound hypothetical but then so is

the topic in itself. My words may not be true for all but think over

them & see on the scale of analogy & you will realize some where we

are also part of corruption, sometimes with will sometimes without

will. Same is applicable to "Save Forest" moment. How many of us have

done in any way to increase the Green Cover ,leave apart Saving

Forests! Frds, first act something on the front by our own, get failure

even after trying sincerely & then criticize others. Many of us go to

the forest places like Kanha or Corbet. Usually the jungle safaris

starts at 6am in morning, so you have to be up by 5 am something & you

get the hot tea ready along with break fast delivered at your room

before you ready for the safari. Have we ever noticed the local boys

who mostly are the room attendants which usually are local village

boys. Have we ever given a thought in morning cold these boys have to

wake up at 3.30am something daily to make your trip comfortable. Many

of us may be tipping them few bucks have we thought of making their

life comfortable? We can give them of thermal wares or shoes!

Ultimately forest isn’t just trees or animals, as I said earlier its the

system or the surrounding & our such acts will definitely help some where

strengthening that system as these are the peoples which are going to

decide the faith of the term forest. As if they are under paid they

wont look after forests but will encroached on them is a fact. And it

will be us who despite being capable of doing something hasn’t done

anything. Theirs is genuine need to survive where as ours is greed

this makes us neglect the real need & full fill the same.

Here I remember the famous Hollywood movie Matrix in which there was

shown a constant on going war with Machines/Programs against the

Humans & humans on the verge of loosing it till a super guy Neo comes

& save them eventually! Well is fine with movies, in real world no

such individual Neo is going to be there & the Greens are fighting the

loosing battle against human beings. But yes, there is one such Neo in

each of us which we need to wake up by our own self & let him go on

the mission of surviving the Greens in our own way. Then only the movie